Deficit of Ukraine's balance of payment reaches $170 mln in July

The deficit of Ukraine's balance of payment in July 2018 totaled $170 million, which is 40.4% better than in July 2017, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has reported.

Thanks to surplus in February, April-June, in January-July 2018 the surplus of the country's balance of payment was $137 million, which is 82.2% less than a year ago.

The NBU said that the deficit of the current account in July 2018 accounted for $1.102 billion, which is 8.8 times more than in June 2018 and 2.7 times more than in July 2017.

"First of all, this is linked to the significant growth of imports of goods compared with exports," the central bank said.

According to its data, exports of goods in July this year rose by 12.6%, to $3.29 billion, while imports by 24.9%, to $5.02 billion. The growth of export of services amounted to 9.9%, to $1.37 billion, while imports to 10.6%, to $3.58 billion.

"The overall growth in exports of goods was constrained by logistics problems in the Sea of Azov, as a result of which growth in exports of steel products slowed to 19.9% year-on-year," the NBU said.

The regulator explained the anticipated growth in imports by a high consumer and investment demand, against which the purchase of machinery products (16%), food (30.8%) and industrial products (28.1%) increased significantly.